I’m always fascinated by stories about Scrum (or any agile process) being used outside of software development. When Martin Lapointe told me how he and his family used Scrum -- and especially a task board -- to manage their recent relocation from Paris to Montreal, I immediately asked him to share that story. I’m sure you’ll find it as interesting, amusing, and informative as I did.- Mike Cohn

Ever since discovering the “Agile Manifesto,” I have been trying to integrate its core set of values into my day-to-day routines in hopes of improving processes outside of the office environment. With this in mind, my family and I embarked on an agile adventure that produced amazing results we never expected!

Since my childhood, I have longed to live and experience life in a different country. I have always been especially interested in exploring Europe in hopes of better understanding the many different cultures that make it such an amazing place. This dream had always been on the back burner, and then in 2011, with the help of my wife, Pascale, and my two girls, Elisabeth and Sarah (8 and 5 years old), we decided to make it a reality.

Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)!

With our family mantra in mind, we picked up, left Montreal and migrated to Paris, France.

As expected, when displacing a family of four from a three-story house to a small Parisian apartment, the move was exhausting and quite chaotic. Almost right off the plane, I started my new job as a ScrumMaster at a telecom company, and meanwhile, Pascale embarked on her new role as “Product Owner” of our household. Our two girls were rapidly immersed into the Parisian lifestyle and school system.

"With our family in mantra in mind, we picked up, left Montreal and migrated to Paris, France."

The next two years flew by at light speed! Before we knew it, it was time to start planning our return to Canada.

Looking back on our initial move to Paris, we wish we had better prepared ourselves and been more organized as a family while facing this major life change. In the face of another move, we began thinking of ways to approach yet another life changing experience.

Our hearts filled with emotions as we started compiling our to-do lists of Post-its that had to be completed before D-day. As the tasks piled up, we started to wonder how we could possibly get all of this done while trying to maintain a balance of work and living a happy life until the end of our European adventure.

What if Scrum Was the Answer to Our Challenge?

Then, one night, we said to ourselves let’s try something different. What if Scrum was the answer to our challenge? In the agile world, we try to leverage experience and failures to improve, so why not use the same approach to our big move?

Having some positive experiences experimenting with Scrum on a non-IT related team, I said to myself, why not take the same approach with my family? So, we gathered in our bedroom with our Post-its and sharpies in hand, and said, let’s create a backlog!

Elisabeth, being the curious one, immediately asked me, “Daddy, what’s a backlog?” I responded by explaining that a backlog is everything we need to do before leaving Paris. Elisabeth quickly asked, “Can I add the Eiffel tower carrousel to the backlog?” Of course, we said yes!

Mom then asked, “Can we also add taking out the trash?” I said yes, of course! Within seconds, everybody was writing valid stories down on Post-its. Sarah drew her story, because she hadn’t learned to write yet: a picture of her favourite Parisian sweets, Pierre Hermé macarons!

In one evening we compiled more than 50 family stories. These stories weren’t perfect by any means. There were no acceptance criteria, no estimations, but the girls were on board, and dare I say it, excited, and that was more than enough!

Next, we asked ourselves: what can we realistically accomplish in a week? Mom wanted to add the entire house cleaning tasks to the backlog. The girls wanted to add all of the fun stuff, and I wanted to add the must-see tourist attractions we hadn’t yet visited.

So we took a small board and made three columns: “To do,” “Ongoing” and “Done.” We negotiated ruthlessly, but ultimately Elisabeth and Sarah got the most stories in (don’t worry! The parents got their revenge in the following iterations ☺). The first iteration was about to begin.

"We had never seen this much work get done so fast, with so much happiness, ease, understanding and visibility!"

The Scrum momentum was on. We agreed upon one-week iterations (sprints) and then took time on the weekends to plan the next iteration. Each morning, we would have a quick gathering (daily stand-up) and the girls were very anxious to move the Post-its around the board. We had never seen so much work get done so fast, with so much happiness, ease, understanding and visibility!

With the Scrum approach, we were able to get the entire apartment-cleaning task list done, administrative tasks complete and some great museum visits in without any conflicts. Scrum was turning out to be a great tool for our family to use when trying to improve clarity and set priorities for big challenges!

We had the joy of experiencing our last days in Paris in a way that we will never forget.

Scrum Was Turning Out to be a Great Tool for Our Family

Back in Montreal, it seemed as though something was missing … It was Scrum! Realising this, we started a new backlog in the basement, and added a cork Scrum board in the kitchen. Our activities are now visible and updated each morning at the breakfast table.

If there’s one overlying factor that we’ve taken away from this experience it’s that we are so proud to be an agile family!

Would you like to include comments?

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About the Author

Martin Lapointe is an agile leader at Yellow Pages Group in Montreal, Canada. With certifications as a CSM, CSPO and PMP, Martin has a solid mastery of agile and Scrum project techniques.
In his role as an agile servant leader, Martin exercises his fervor for communication, making initiatives work, creating interactions, generating collaboration and organizing change positively.
Martin applies agile values to both his work environment, and personal and family life. You can connect with Martin on Twitter @mdelapointeand on LinkedIn.

This is a great story Martin, and it was great to meet and work with you this week!

Posted by Greg Salsman on 2016-04-14 13:33:20

Hi Shana—

What a great story!

Many creative people really struggle with adding just enough organization to their lives. And I really feel like Scrum can provide that for some of them. I often equate it to the lines on a highway—the lines are there to provide just enough structure to help, not to be rigid. I’m glad it’s helping you personally and professionally.

Posted by Mike Cohn on 2016-03-20 18:02:39

I've never heard of kanban... I am an actress and travel writer trying to make it big on Broadway... My life was overworked and overwhelming for years... My fiancé is in the IT world and he is Scrum Master at his job... I asked him to help me put my life in order as he seemed to always have more work than I did but never seemed overwhelmed by it ... He taught me how to Sprint plan and I have never been happier with my life and career. I've completed more stories in two weeks (we do two weeks to three week iterations) than I have in a 6 month period. His coworkers tease him cause every now and then they will see his calendar pop up showing Shana Sprint Plan. But it has not only improved my career but my interpersonal relationships with him friends family and I can actually see how everything can get done. I would love to write a follow up article about this and post it. So glad your kids are learning about Agile! It's a great tool for overall success in life and helps develop a very good problem solving mental set

Posted by Shana Dagny on 2016-03-20 12:46:44

Cool martin, we miss you in Europe ...Sébastien

Posted by mamseb on 2014-10-02 11:32:37

Great real-world example of managing needs of various stakeholders - very cool.

Posted by Lynn Gariepy on 2014-09-17 14:09:58

Thanks, Martin, for this awsome (user) story telling! :-)

By the way, I have used too a backlog approach to modernize my bathroom.

It helped a lot, especially to prioritize and have fully functional stories completed one after the other ('Brush my teeth', 'Take a shower', 'Take a bath', 'Close the door'). Imagine what it would have been if all stories be in progress and none completed all at once? :-D

Cheers

Posted by Xavier Galleri on 2014-09-16 00:19:41

That’s great! I hope your daughter has a wonderful birthday.

Posted by mikewcohn on 2014-09-15 08:48:58

I've been using Trello to manage a Kanban of tasks todo for my Daughters birthday, it's working out realy well so far!

Posted by Mark Smith on 2014-09-15 06:54:31

Hi Maritza,thanks for the feedback. I did not know it was such a documented practice J Looks like you are a pro! Your journeyas an agile family is a great source of experience. You inspired me with your “PlanningPoker for Personal Priorities”, I might give it a shot! Thanks -Martin

Posted by Martin De Lapointe on 2014-09-01 07:27:41

Always nice to see more families embrace the magic of agile techniques in the home. :) When I first dabbled with using Scrum (way before Bruce Feiler made it mainstream!), I certainly got some odd stares. Like you, though, we've seen how the principles of self-organization, visibility and equal participation have transformed the way we as a family communicate and get things done - both the fun things, and the not-so fun things.

Over the years we've moved to Personal Kanban, with some Scrum practices woven naturally into our weekly cycle, e.g. family chat on Thursdays during dinner, planning the weekend ahead; family chat on Sundays/Mondays during dinner, reflecting on what worked/didn't work the previous week and our weekend "timebox". You can read more about our journey at http://scrumfamily.wordpress.c...

Posted by Maritza vd Heuvel on 2014-08-29 12:16:36

It became obvious to us when we started it, before it was just a crazy idea! Put your kids at the center of the backlog creation process and you will see a strong ownership. Empower them on the selection of stories for the sprint, and you’ll see the creativity emerging. My kids loved the ability to manipulate the post-its, it made the stories concrete to them.Good luck, I'm sure you'll like it! And thanks for the feedback. -Martin

Posted by Martin De Lapointe on 2014-08-27 11:56:10

Kanban also works. We gave it a shot this summer. Without a specific project, our main concern was to manage the amount activities and visits we had to do. Kanban was great to establish an upper limit and manage the flow! I think it was one of our best summer ever!

Posted by Martin De Lapointe on 2014-08-27 11:52:40

Hi Wordsmither—

Your secret is safe with me—I won’t tell the Scrum Alliance and have your or your husband’s certifications revoked! ;) I’m with you, though—I loved this idea. Martin told me about right after we’d done just about all the work to help my oldest daughter move away to college. If he’d told me a few weeks earlier, I would have insisted she have a Moving Backlog! I’m glad you liked his post.

Posted by mikewcohn on 2014-08-26 23:37:37

I love this so much! My kids are SO visual, and would likely really benefit from it. I'm a little embarrased that neither my husband (a scrum master) nor I (a one time certified product owner) thought to do this!